Television.

Night And Day

Despite His Sunny Disposition, David Boreanaz Is A Believable Vampire

Everybody knows there are no such things as vampires. So David Boreanaz must be a great actor.

What other reason accounts for feeling unnerved when seeing Boreanaz in the sunshine?

Boreanaz plays Angel, the lovesick neckbiter on the WB's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Since vampires have an aversion to sunlight, all of Angel's scenes take place at night. So meeting Boreanaz in a sun-drenched room recently took a little getting used to.

Talking with the actor was interesting just because the differences between Boreanaz and Angel are as different as, well, night and day.

While Angel is brooding and intense, Boreanaz is open and friendly, happily offering a drink or leftover potatoes and bacon from a plate. While Angel is powerfully built and dangerous, Boreanaz, though noticeably fit, doesn't seem as brawny, and is too cool to be threatening. Angel is beardless; Boreanaz has a little chin hair.

Angel's dress motif is basic black; this day Boreanaz was casual in a blue shirt, dark slacks and unvampire-like gym shoes. He hid behind a pair of blue sunglasses that didn't look like the popular brand of shades that protects a brood of daylight-tripping vampires in a certain television commercial.

Thank goodness Boreanaz didn't behave the way his alter ego has lately. He didn't display any bloodthirsty tendencies or snap any necks the way Angel did Buffy confidant Jenny Calender's (Robia La Morte) earlier this season.

Former good guy Angel was pure evil after he lost his soul during a night of passion with Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar). Most fans of the series (7 p.m. Tuesdays on WGN-Ch. 9) were shocked.

Boreanaz found it a blast.

"It was a lot of fun," said Boreanaz, 27. "It was easy for me, in a sense, because the writing was so pure and simple, it gave me an opportunity to expand personality traits and get into his head.

"And with each episode I learned more, whether it be twisting a flower in a kind of weird way while I was talking to a girl or something that was way out there."

Boreanaz will get a chance to explore more of Angel's facets now that the vampire is back from the dark side, thanks to events in "Buffy's" season finale. The Bufferino "put me in my place," Boreanaz grinned.

"Buffy" creator Joss Whedon and co-executive producer David Greenwalt say they will spin off a series for Angel for the 1999 season. The process to split Angel away from Buffy's home of Sunnydale will slowly take place during the coming season.

"Angel" is still in the planning stages, but Boreanaz said the premise will have Angel moving to Los Angeles to "fight the inner demons of everybody," he said. "I want to take (them) off everybody else's shoulders. It's almost like a cure for humanity."

Boreanaz said there will be some of the same conflicts facing Angel that troubled vampire cop Nick Knight in the syndicated series "Forever Knight." Angel will confront being a member of the undead.

The series will have the same "thematic' tone as "Buffy," but it will be darker and more adult, Boreanaz said. However, "it won't be like this mysterious guy brooding intensely and walking the shadows. He's going to be a character that's going to be fun and balanced between good and evil."

Since Angel will relocate close to Sunnydale, he'll pop up on "Buffy" from time to time, and certain "Buffy" characters will visit him. Boreanaz added that one character may even join Angel permanently-- selfish, self-centered Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter).

The new series is a sweet deal for a guy who first came on "Buffy" as a recurring character when the show premiered in March 1997. The son of a popular weathercaster in Philadelphia, Boreanaz hadn't done much acting beyond theater and appearances on "Married . . . With Children" and the TV movie "Men Don't Lie."

He initially took the "Buffy" job because "I just wanted to feed my dog," he laughed. And now Boreanaz is poised to join Gellar, "Party of Five's" Neve Campbell, the young stars of "Dawson's Creek" and other TV actors his age who seem to be the favorites of Hollywood to star in movies.

Boreanaz said he turned down one big-screen role because he was vacationing in South Africa during his hiatus, an "unbelievable experience." He was offered another movie part but it would have run into "Buffy's" shooting schedule.

"Everything needs to be right in order for it to work," he said, "and for me, if it's not right you feel uncomfortable--your work will reflect that.

"That all comes in time," Boreanaz said of possible movie roles.

Because his character is around 240 years old, he sounds like someone who can afford to be patient.